Cleaning of toilets is an unsanitary task that is exasperated by the need to store a contaminated brush between uses. The user of a toilet brush is also subject to obvious medical hazards related to bacteria and contaminants in the toilet. This is bad enough for toilets in private homes but is particularly troublesome for toilets in hospitals, hotels, and other commercial locations.
Heretofore there have been no low cost disposable toilet brushes. It would be possible to purchase a standard toilet brush and dispose it after each use; however, that would be rather costly as the standard toilet brush is rather durably built since it is meant to be reused over a substantial period of time. The normal procedure for use is to spray a detergent and/or disinfectant liquid around the inside of the toilet bowl and then brush the bowl. The brush is then rinsed by dipping it into the toilet water and stored for future use. All parts of this procedure leave the user subject to dirt and disease plus the stored brush is normally contaminated and unsightly.
The instant invention offers a low cost, attractive, and viable solution for cleaning toilets as it is provides a truly antiseptic disposable toilet cleaning system. In its preferred embodiment it is supplied with built in detergent and/or disinfectant agents and a disposal bag. From a cost competition standpoint, the preferred method of design and manufacture calls for a one piece flexible rubberlike plastic material that lends to high volume low cost molding. The bristles of the molded brush, in the preferred embodiment, are dipped in a solution of detergent and/or disinfectant which is then dried on the bristles. Since the brushes are optimally designed to nest for shipment and storage several brushes are conveniently supplied in one sales and storage package where said sales and storage package can also contain an equal number of disposal bags.
The beauty of all of this is that the user simply removes one chemically treated brush from the storage package, rinses same in clean toilet water to activate the chemical agent(s), brushes the toilet bowl clean, and then disposes of the used toilet brush in the disposal bag provided. There are no requirements for handling, cleaning, or storing of the contaminated brush head or bristles after cleaning of the toilet.
Alternative embodiments of the instant invention call for liquid detergents and/or disinfectants. The first approach is similar to the previously described system except that liquid chemicals are entrapped in hollow compartments in the ends of the bristle. In this instance, the liquid chemicals are released upon rubbing the brush bristles against the toilet bowl. A multiple-use concept that uses a liquid chemical approach has a squeezable liquid chemical reservoir that is in liquid communication with the brush bristles. As the user squeezes the reservoir the liquid chemicals are dispensed to the bristles during toilet cleaning.
In contrast to disease and contaminant prone prior art reusable toilet brushes, the instant invention, particularly in its preferred embodiment, offers a low cost disposable toilet cleaning system. Use of detergent and/or disinfectant agents pre-applied to the instant invention brush's bristles greatly simplifies use. That feature coupled with a concept that nests low cost molded brushes for shipment and storage in a single package where said package also includes brush disposal bags makes for a very attractive solution to the very nasty problem of toilet cleaning. The prior art does not address this.
German patent 496,181 shows hollow bristles to which end a liquid cleaning agent, supplied thorough a handle "h", can be ejected through its bristles marked "f" as well as other hollow bristles marked "e". The "e" bristles are also hollow; however, they are angled outward from the a center of the dispensing head. Further, all bristles show constant diameter and not tapered hollows. Therefore, German patent 496,181 cannot accomplish the nesting of bristles and hence brushes as does the instant invention because German patent 496,181 has the following shortcomings that render it unable to accomplish such nesting: 1) Bristle hollows are constant diameter and not tapered, 2) Many bristles are angled outward from the center of the brush head, and 3) The back side of the brush head is enclosed by a cover. Because of any of the three aforementioned reasons, singularly or in combination, nesting of German patent 496,181 cleaning brushes is not possible.